AI dangers to watch out for in 2019

TechnologyReview.com/ | Will Knight and Karen Hao | Jan 7 2019

AI for GOOD Global Summit (34328658954).jpg
By ITU Pictures from Geneva, Switzerland -
AI for GOOD Global Summit, CC BY 2.0, Link
The latest AI methods excel at perceptual tasks such as classifying images and transcribing speech, but the hype and excitement over these skills have disguised how far we really are from building machines as clever as we are. Six controversies from 2018 stand out as warnings that even the smartest AI algorithms can misbehave, or that carelessly applying them can have dire consequences.

Self-crashing cars… Political manipulation bots…

Read more.

Oxymoron: How much will I get paid for donating my eggs?

CenterForHumanReprod.com/ | Feb 1 2019

Human Egg (2722043681).jpg
By Ed Uthman from Houston, TX, USA -
Human Egg Uploaded by CFCF, CC BY 2.0, Link
[EXCERPTS] How much will I get paid for donating my eggs?
Our current egg donation compensation for your time, commitment and services is $8,000 on average for a completed egg donation cycle (i.e. retrieval of eggs). You can earn up to $14,000 depending on your qualifications and the number of eggs you produce. If your cycle is canceled due to no fault of your own, compensation is $1,000…

How can I maximize my earning as an egg donor?
The number of eggs you produce in your egg donation cycle largely determines your egg donor compensation. Following your clinical coordinator's instructions regarding how to use the medications and when to administer your injections will ensure that a good number of eggs develop. Donors who have donated successfully will earn more in our program, as do donors who are designated as "high demand." For more information about how our egg donation program's donor compensation works, please see the egg donation fee & compensation page. Read more.


Related: Hands Off Our Ovaries

Biotechnological research and development often affect women more directly than men. In the case of human embryonic cloning, women’s health and safety have already been affected—adversely. Sadly, there have been too many instances of coercion and deception, and violations of informed consent. Left uncontrolled, research demands will place undue burdens on young, poor women. We deserve a biotechnology that is not degrading and destructive to women's health. The ends do not justify these sorts of means.

The recent South Korean cloning scandal—an example of global co-operation between American and Korean researchers— illustrates our concerns only too well. At the heart of the scandal are the abuses suffered by women for the sake of risky, highly speculative, fraudulent research. The effort involved more than 2,200 ova obtained by paying and coercing women, some of whom were in subordinate positions within the research lab. Now, thirty-five Korean women’s groups are seeking compensation on behalf of the nearly 20 percent of the Korean women “donors” who were harmed by the egg extraction procedures. Two women (one in London and one in Dublin) are known to have died recently from complications associated with egg extraction.

Read more.


Related: Would-be egg donors face threats and bills

Egg donation isn’t easy. Typically, it requires a woman to synchronize her ovulation cycle with that of the recipient woman, using birth control pills. Then the donor injects herself with hormones for a few weeks: One halts the natural reproductive cycle and helps prevent her from ovulating at the wrong time. Another ramps up egg production. Usually, a woman’s ovaries only release one egg a month, but with medication it could jump to 15 or more. If all goes well… Read more.

Angel fish
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...and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind ... the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind ...the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. -Genesis 1

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A SistersSite eBook

Flesh and Bone and The Protestant Conscience is an e-book on Amazon.com. It is 99¢ and in the Amazon lending library as well. It is also available here in PDF format. The book description follows.

Would you let your conscience be your guide?

Does God care if the skin and bone of the dead are passed along to the living for medical uses? Is organ donation OK with God? Should you sign a Living Will?

Did you know that dead organ donors are often anesthetized before their organs are removed? Do you know the current definition of death? The conscience cannot function without facts.

As we ponder the ethics of in vitro fertilization, stem cell research and man-made chimeras, our thoughts trail off. How then should we live? (Ez 33:10)

How should a Christian think about euthanasia by starvation when doctors and the state attorney general all agree it is time to withhold feeding from a brain injured patient? Some things are family matters, but someday it may be our family.

Here is a small book to help you think about whether you want to sign your driver's license, donate a kidney, cremate your loved one, and many other practical questions that may arise in the course of your healthcare decisions or watch over others.

It offers a special focus on the doctrine of the Resurrection that is related to such decisions. Sunday School classes and Bible Study groups could use this book to facilitate discussion about the issues covered.